Good Governance and Innovation within Sport Federations

Lefebvre, Arthur [UCL] Zeimers, Géraldine [UCL] Helsen, Kobe Corthouts, Joris Scheerder, Jeroen Zintz, Thierry [UCL]

Good governance and innovation are two major concerns for sport federations. In response to the scandals that have shaken sport's image in recent decades, sport organisations, governments, and research groups encourage or impose sport federation to implement several good governance principles (Geeraert, 2021; Parent & Hoye, 2018). Meanwhile, sport federations need to innovate to cope with an increasingly changing and competitive environment (Corthouts et al., 2021; Tjønndal, 2017). To date, although evidence of the impact of governance on innovation exists in the non-profit literature (Jaskyte, 2018), the relationship between (good) governance and sport innovation remains unclear and overlooked. This study examines the relationship between good governance and innovation by comparing innovations adoption between better and poorer-governed sport federations. Developing more knowledge on the potential benefits of good governance is needed to foster change and overcome some of the resistances and barriers (Geeraert, 2021). Our research answers the following question: Are better-governed sport federations more innovative than poorer-governed ones? Theoretical Background and Literature Review Henry & Lee (2004) defined good governance as "the accepted norms or values for the just means of allocation of resources, and profits or losses (financial or other) and of the conduct of processes involved in the management and direction of organisations in the sport business" (p.3). Three recurring principles emerge among these norms and values: transparency, democracy, and accountability. Sport innovations are "proactive and intentional processes that involve the generation and practical adoption of new and creative ideas, which aim to produce a qualitative change in a sport context" (Tjønndal, 2017, p. 293). Recently, Corthouts et al. (2021) identified six innovation types adopted by sport federations: strategic knowledge management, entrepreneurship and cooperation, knowledge sharing, digital presence, mobile deployment, and commercialisation. To date, studies have primarily focused on the managerial, organisational, and environmental determinants that influence innovation within sport organisations (Tjønndal, 2017). However, studies have overlooked the impact of good governance on innovation. Yet, studies in the non-profit context have highlighted that governance processes such as decision-making processes, internal and external control, board diversity, and shared vision are related to innovation adoption (Jaskyte, 2018). Considering that good governance principles aim to improve these processes, we hypothesise that sport federations implementing good governance principles are more likely to adopt innovations. Research Design, Methodology, and Data Analysis Data collection took place in 2018 and consisted of an observational desk research to collect online data on good governance principles and innovations adopted by sport federations. The sample included 150 regional sport federations in Belgium. The rationale for studying the regional level is that Belgium is a federal state where the political sport competencies are attributed to the linguistic regions. Consequently, regional sport federations have primary responsibilities for the organisation and the development of their sport. We measured the implementation of good governance principles (i.e., transparency, democracy, and accountability) through 32 items (Scheerder et al., 2015). Regarding innovation, we measured the adoption of six innovation types through 21 items (Corthouts et al., 2021). Then, we analysed the data in two phases. First, a two-step cluster analysis using the three good governance principles as predictors identified one better-governed sport federations cluster and one poorer-governed sport federations cluster. Next, we carried out a Mann-Whitney U test to compare the adoption of six innovation types between these two clusters. Results and Discussion Results indicated a significant difference between poorer and better-governed sport federations in adopting five of the six innovation types. Better-governed sport federations are more innovative than poorer-governed ones in terms of strategic knowledge management (U = 384.50, p < .001), entrepreneurship and cooperation (U = 583.00, p < .001), digital presence (U = 1076.00, p < .001), mobile deployment (U = 2126.00, p < .05), and commercialisation (U = 1702.00, p < .001). These results support our assumption that better-governed sport federations are more innovative. As Jaskyte (2018) highlighted, governance is related to innovation. Our research supports this link and extends current knowledge by identifying that the implementation of good governance principles, which are supposed to improve organisational governance, is linked to innovation. Conclusion, Contribution, and Implication This study provides the first empirical evidence of a relationship between good governance and innovation in sport. More broadly, our research is one of the few to demonstrate empirically the often assumed but insufficiently tested positive effect of good governance principles on sport federations (Geeraert, 2021; Parent & Hoye, 2018). It therefore contributes to the sport management literature by unpacking the relationship between good governance and innovation and extending knowledge on the innovation determinants and the good governance outcomes in sport. Our results eventually indicate that more studies should focus on this overlooked relationship and further explore the factors influencing this link. Practically, this research suggests that sport federation managers should focus on good governance principles as better-governed sport federations are also more innovative.